Research

The University Of Queensland School Of Dentistry produces quality dental and oral health research, contributing to the advancement of scientific knowledge both locally and internationally.

Research within the School is focused on a number of streams, and crosses a range of areas from stem cell and tissue engineering and biological sciences through to technologies applied in clinical practice, dental public health and dental education.

Collectively, our staff and students work hard to ensure continuing success in research. These achievements have helped to provide effective solutions to contemporary challenges in dentistry and position the School as a global leader in dental and oral health research.

The School has a demonstrated long-standing history of quality research, rated ‘above world standard’ in 2010 and 2012 and ‘well-above world standard’ in 2015 by the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) rankings. We encourage translational research, emphasizing the importance of research impact on patient outcomes, as well as healthcare policy and practice.

Research Streams

The Advanced Materials and Technologies research stream works across the interface between fundamental sciences and clinical dental practice, spanning materials chemistry and nanomaterials, microbiology and laser science through to laboratory studies of dental hard and soft tissue responses to materials and material performance, to clinical trials of novel technologies. The group has a focus on how research findings are transitioned into clinical dental practice, and is particularly interested in endodontics, cariology and paediatric dentistry, imaging and forensic dentistry.

Group members within this stream have active collaborations within UQ (e.g. IMB, SCMB, Medicine, UQCCR, Chemical Engineering, Physics) and collaborate with external partners (including Metro North and Metro South) and industry on projects of common interest.

The Ivanovski Tissue Engineering and Additive Manufacturing (iTEAM) research stream works at the forefront of innovation in regenerative medicine, restoring native oro-dental tissue form and function through the application of novel materials and manufacturing technologies to tissue engineering.

Focus areas of this stream include the regeneration of periodontal tissues, the enhancement of horizontal and vertical bone augmentation in the oral region, the functionalisation of metallic dental implants, the application of immunomodulation to encourage healing, and the modulation of bacterial response through material modifications.

Within these research areas, functional approaches typically involve the development of novel biomaterials and tissue engineering scaffold strategies, preclinical testing, the advancement of additive manufacturing technologies, and the targeting of clinical translation.

Research leaders within this stream are active collaborators in both a clinical and research setting, with ongoing projects with internal (UQ CCR, UQ FoM, TRI, AIBN), external (QUT IHBI, QUT CARF, Griffith MHIQ), and international universities, along with prominent industry partners (Geistlich Pharma/Biomaterials, Straumann Group).

The Dental Public Health research stream broadly conducts research to understand the epidemiology of health and oral ill-health; and improve and enhance the oral health of communities at a population level.